52 Days of Night
52 Days of Night is a serial about Ganon's life before joining the Toa Protectorate and his training with Commander Krall. Story Chapter 1 I and the other 100 Matoran have been on this transport for hours. The reason why we are here? Because our villages have selected us as elite Matoran to be sent off to be trained to fight at base camp Kohydrox, hidden in the mountain ranges of Kadax Nui. Apparently, our lands are in grave danger and need to be protected. I don't know why I've been chosen, for I'm just a simple builder, but hey, whatever can get me away from the site can only be a good thing! Chapter 2 Finally, the transport came to a stop at the foot of the mountain. "Oy!" yelled out a Matoran of Jungle. "Aren't you going any further? There's a road up the mountain to your right!" "Hold your Rahi, I'm on it!" the driver replied. He pulled out a small device from a compartment. As he activated it, the mountain opened up and the transport just drove right on! As we were driving down what seemed to be an endless tunnel, several lightstones came alight until we stopped atop a colored panel. All of a sudden, a strange whirring noise began and a hydraulic arm lifted the panel, along with us, straight up in the air at a tremendous speed. Eventually, we emerged through the floor at at a large hangar, and we all filed out of the transport. Most of the 100 Matoran assembled here had a companion or a friend that had been selected along with them, but not me. I was alone. As everyone casually talked and wandered I stood up straight, at tension, as if being commanded; after all, once our commander came in, I decided, it'll be a good first impression. A door slid open to the left of the hangar and the rest of the Matoran filed in rows. A tall red being stood out of the door and approached us. Chapter 3 He stood in front of us, thickly covered in shining crimson armor with four spectacular wings sprouting from his back. He looked rugged and weathered, almost as if he'd been doing nothing but fight for years. The being stood up straight and bellowed in a strong commanding voice: "ATTENTION!" All the Matoran instantly stood up straight. The being paced in front of us, inspecting us, till he came up to a Le-Matoran. "Oy, you, stand up straight!" He hit him in the back of the head with such force that he fell to the ground. "Get up, fool!" The Matoran forced himself up. It was pretty obvious that he was in immense pain, and he spat out some blood onto the floor. As soon as I saw that, I knew that this "training" wasn't going to be easy. The being began to speak once more. "I am Commander Krall, and I shall be your commander for the next few weeks. The next 52 days shall be the worst of your pitiful lives. You have come here in your masses as wastes of flesh and metal and will leave as skillful fighting machines — and you shan't disappoint me, because I don't like to be disappointed. Do I make myself clear????". His plead was meant with a quite and fearful "Yes, sir." "I said, DO I MAKE MYSELF CLEAR??????" "SIR, YES, SIR!" we all replied. "You can't be possibly be expected to fight with these puny physiques, so a transformation shall be in order." He clapped his hands and large cylinders came over each of us, including myself. Slowly, a maelstrom of energy flurried around, leaving me dazed and utterly dazzled. Within a few minutes, the cylinders were raised, and as soon as our vision came back we were in awe of ourselves. We were magnificent Toa! Chapter 4 "Now you have your new bodies, your training can start tomorrow morning at 3:00. Please report to your dorms. They will have your names on the door. File out in a orderly fashion." The lot of us quickly crowded through the door where the dorms were to be located. "I SAID ORDERLY!" We all filed out in a line in fear of our commander. I soon arrived at my dorm and the automated door slid open. The room was a small square with a bed and a sink. The smell of sweat was strong and heavy in the room and quite unbearable. I didn't care, though; it was better than being with that sociopath Krall. I lay on the bed, holding my breath, trying to get sleep for the long day ahead... "OY, fool, get out there!" "What? Out where??" I looked across the crater of the bubbling volcano. "That's what I said, fool!" Krall yelled as he spiked me in the back with a hooked blade. I leaped in the lava, searing my skin, blistering my face, melting my mask into my eyes. I managed to get out, just on the edge of life, when several Rahkshi surrounded me, all of whom were ripping me apart with their staffs. One of them reached out and threw me off the edge of the volcano; hitting jagged rocks as I fell, I finally landed in a thornbush. Krall flew in and angrily stared at me. He pulled out two colossal blades and threw them into my neck and said... Chapter 5 "...GET UP, GET UP!" Krall was shouting down the dormitory corridor. I awoke, sweating like Karzahni. It had all been just a terrible nightmare. "It's 300 hours: time for your first day of training. For your sake, I hope you're prepared!" I peered into the mirror located above the sink, looking terrible. If training was how I had thought, I wondered what the war would be like. Soon enough, we had all been gathered at the foot of one of the mountains and by Mata Nui, was it freezing. I don't get how Ko-Matoran survive up there. "You've been gathered here for training, and it won't be easy. If it were, then I wouldn't be doing my job properly. You pathetic beings' first training exercise is: capture the flag. The flag is located at the top of Mount Qako. You will be competing against every other Toa you see here, and other obstacles that I shall lay out. First one to get the flag wins. Understood?" "SIR, YES, SIR!" "That's an improvement. You shall all receive two pistols as your primary weapons. One serves as a stun blaster and the others a laser." My first Toa tools! I had really wanted a blade of some sort, but I supposed those were fine. "Starting positions!" KABOOM! He launched a fireball into the air, and the race began. Chapter 6 The other Toa and I quickly started clambering up the cliff, and I was quite ahead. Suddenly, a stun blaster fired into me and I almost fell, just holding on to a ledge. I managed to get myself up, knocking a Toa of Iron down; I was back in the game! I got out my pistols and fired wildly down when I was hit down by a Shadow Panther released by Krall as a challenge. It started ripping up my left arm, but I sent it flying by giving it a kick where the sun don't shine! "Oy, you!" I yelled above. "What?" When the Toa turned around, I pulled his leg and he fell to his demise. I was getting good. I flipped onto a long ledge which went quite deep into the mountain, and I crouched out of sight on it. Every time a Toa came up I'd push him down unexpectedly. Soon I got moving again; basically, my only real competition was a one-legged Toa who seemed to be pretty skilled. Left jab, right jab: the fight was difficult, but all of a sudden he stabbed me in the eye with his peg-leg, nearly knocking me off the edge. He ran on, the flag in view; he reached out for it, then: SPLAT! He was coated with sticky plasma; my first elemental outburst. I ran on past him and gained the flag. Victory was mine! Soon we gathered together at the base of the mountain once more, and Krall came up to us. "You are a pathetic, simply pathetic, bunch of simpletons. I mean, look at you! Half of you look like you've been through a hurricane. What kind of recruits are you?? The only half decent recruits here are these two!" He pointed at me and the one-legged Toa. "Get out of my sight; I don't even want to look at you!" The lot of us trooped back to our rooms. Chapter 7 I was in my room, cleaning the blood of my face and staring in the mirror. "Man, what a day," I said, thinking aloud. "I'll say," replied a voice from behind me. I turned around, quite in shock, to see the one-legged Toa by the door. "Oh, it's just you... Great game out there, you know." "Yeah, yeah, you too." "Sorry 'bout the plasma." "No, no. It's OK; it was the aim of the game: to win. Pretty hard to get out of your armor, though. Wait, where are my manners? Hi, I'm Matoh," and he reached his hand out for a shake. I shook his hand. "I'm Ganon." "Yeah, I wanted to talk to you. I guess that's why I came down here." "Oh, OK. About what?" "Well, I wanted to ask: do you actually know why we are here? Wait, let me re-phrase that. What or who will we be fighting, because at the moment we haven't been briefed on exactly what we are training for?" "You know what, you have a poi—" I was interrupted by the loud voice yelling "RECRUITS, GATHER AT THE VIRTUA-CAMP." "Where's that?" I asked. "It should be on the map in that info pack we got." Matoh reached out under the bed and pulled out a rucksack. "Also, one more thing, if you don't mind me asking?" "What's up?" "What happened to your leg?" "I had it cut off as a m—" "HURRY UP!" "I'll tell ya later, I think it's best if we go now." We headed off to the Virtua-Camp. Chapter 8 We ran into the "Virtua-Camp" and everyone else was already there. The place was a huge empty box with many hatched panels on the ceiling. "OY, YER LATE!" Krall hit us in the back of the head and pushed us into line. "You're lucky you did well in that last exercise, or I'd have punished you severely. Alright, the rest of you living blobs; in this exercise you will demonstrate to me your hand-to-hand combat skills..." "Excuse me, sir!" A Toa of Iron said. "Will this combat be against each other, sir?" Krall walked up to him and looked down on him. "WELL, YOU'LL SOON FIND OUT, WON'T YOU, YOU BLITHERING BUFFOON!" The hatches on the ceilings flipped open and helmets connected with wires dropped out. "These are virtual-reality helmets. On here, you will be tested in many fighting skills, from hand-to-hand to gun skills." "SIR, YES, SIR!" "Here are the guns you will use in training. They don't use live ammo, so don't try it. The helmets will become transparent when in use, and once attached you may select, using voice command, which training exercise you would like. NOW BEGIN!" Chapter 9 Several menus came up upon the screen and an automated voice spoke. "Please select mode of warfare." Several selections came up on screen, each as gruesome as the next. "Um... Okay, gun warfare." "Choice selected; loading setting..." ---- training with his invisible helmet while Krall gives commands]] I looked around. There were dead corpses everywhere, and the air was thick with the smell of rotting flesh. All of a sudden, a robotic trooper landed behind me, bearing some sort of blaster, and started firing. Luckily, I dodged every one by performing a set of a aerial flips. Very good. Krall's voice was projected into my thoughts. But can you handle these? I pulled out the pistols I had been given and prepared for the worst. Four more of the troopers, though more heavily armored, came into view. They reared heavy machine guns and opened fire. I leaped out of the way and the rain of bullets killed two, but was hit myself by about five. I could see my health beam going down drastically. I fired my pistols and managed to take out one of them, but the other began blasting again. I was severely wounded, my health bar nearly gone, but two head shots finished that last guy out. I was so overjoyed that I forgot more waves would soon be coming, and I was struck in the back. The helmet ejected and became visible once more. "End of training exercise!" yelled out Krall. "Now make your way toward the gym. It seems a lot of you need toughening up a bit!" Soon enough, we had all gathered at the gym. "This exercise will be circuits. You will go around and use each of the exercises here, UNDERSTAND???" "SIR, YES, SIR!" Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Kaboom! The side of the building's wall disintegrated, and a large ship was hovering outside. "ENEMY SHIP! THEY'VE FOUND OUR BASE!" Krall yelled. He released a huge blast of fire out of his energy pulse blades, taking down the ship. He quickly handed everyone a weapon, based on their progress in the exercises. "Sword, lance, hook, machete, nunchucks." "Nunchucks! Why can't I have a blade?" I argued back. "I've seen you fight, and let me tell you one thing: you don't need a fancy blade to defeat an opponent, you just need skill." Once everyone had a weapon, we all headed out onto the mountain front. I could see a huge army of small gunner ships heading our way. We all selected a gun as well. I picked a super accurate Midak that channeled the user's element. This should be handy! Krall got out a device which locked down the whole base and cloaked it. "Okay boys, though your training is not complete, use the skills you've already learned because this IS WAR! NOW DO ME PROUD!" It felt as if my heart was in my mouth and a Madu fruit was lodged in my throat. This was the most nerve-wracking moment of my life. There was a deathly silence. I looked around and I could see the fear in my comrades' eyes. The silence was broken by laser fire... Then it began. Chapter 12 I sprang into action. Using a series of flips, I dodged the lasers and landed atop one of the ships, using it as a platform, and began firing wildly, missing many of the ships. The other Toa formed a line and began firing systematically, taking down many of the ships under command of Krall. "GET OFF THERE, CAN'T YOU SEE WE'VE GOT A FORMATION!" Krall yelled out at me. But I couldn't stop; I was out of control and my gun was jammed. My gun began firing continuously, but instead of hitting ships I was hitting comrades, coating them with steaming plasma. "I said STOP IT! GET DOWN, YOU STUPID FOOL!" "I CAN'T!" "ALL RIGHT. THE REST OF YOU, NEW TARGET. THAT GUY!" They all aimed their guns at me a opened fire. I began leaping from ship to ship avoiding the bullets. Then I jumped, but there were no ships in that airspace. The ground was hard and unforgiving. "That's it!" He reached for a device, flicked a switch, and instantly all the ships went in for landing. All the Toa were baffled. "WHAT THE--!" "YEAH, THAT'S RIGHT, IT WAS JUST A TRAINING EXERCISE! AND YOU, TROGLODYTE!" I walked up to him solemnly. "Yes, sir?" "YOU WILL BE PUNISHED FOR YOUR BLATANT IDIOCY!" ---- "Here's your new room. Enjoy!" It was a damp stone room and there wasn't much light. I huddled in the corner, trying to ignore the stench. I guess that was all I could do. Chapter 13 After searching the new room, I found that the stench came from under the bed (the only object in the room); there was a dead Rahi underneath it. I couldn't be bothered to identify it, and sat on the bed. The bed collapsed, and I landed on the rotting corpse. But there was something hard in the body — a glowing red object that seemed to be pulsing. It wasn't the creature's heart; it was a precious stone of some kind. What I was thinking wasn't how much the stone was worth, but how strong it was. I slashed it against the wall, and found that it was pretty strong, and it had even dented the wall, which was solid protosteel (I presumed). I got to work on opening the door. It took a while, but I managed to decimate the hooks holding it to the wall. The door fell open, and the all-too-familiar figure of Commander Krall walked in. "Well, maybe you aren't as dumb as I thought, Toa... uh... what's your name, kid?" "Ganon, sir." "Then, Ganon, you should be getting back to your real quarters! That's right — this was yet another training exercise. Now go before I change my mind!" "Sir, yes, sir!" I ran out of the horrible room as fast as I could, trying to forget the corpse that lay under the bed. Chapter 14 "ATTENTION! Your next exercise will be a teamwork exercise! As you can see, you have all been paired up. Your task is this — defeat the Mechanical Rahkshi and recover your alloted Kanohi." All of the Toa went in their pairs into the separate arenas, and the exercise began. I was paired with Matoh, who seemed to know a lot about unarmed combat. Suddenly, a group of Mechanical Rahkshi entered the arena, and Matoh and I immediately drew our weapons. "Okay, Ganon," he shouted in my direction. "You take the fusion, the density control, and the anger! I'll take the fear, the poison, and the weather control!" Following Matoh's instructions, I ran at the first Rahkshi and jumped. I kicked it in the head, and used the momentum to travel through the air to kick the next. As I landed, I saw the third, a Rahkshi of density control, coming towards me. I wrapped my nunchucks around its neck and pulled it to the ground. By then, the other two Rahkshi were back on their feet. Meanwhile, Matoh was in trouble. The Rahkshi of poison had infected him with, well, poison, and the weather control had brought a lightning storm on him. The Rahkshi of fear was coming in to finish the job. Seeing this, I jumped at the Rahkshi of fear, and threw it at the two Rahkshi following me. A searing blast of plasma stopped them from getting up again. The two remaining Rahkshi turned, and the weather control Rahkshi's concentration broke. The lightning stopped, and Matoh fell to the floor. I hastily blasted the Rahkshi of Poison, and kicked the other Rahkshi twice — once in the head, and once in the chest. When I was sure the Rahkshi were down, I went to check on Matoh. He was okay, but not in good shape. He could walk though, so he got to his feet and we collected the mask, a green and slightly odd-looking Kanohi Hau. "Congratulations!" a voice boomed. It was Commander Krall. "You have completed the task. Matoh, you get to the medical bay. Ganon, can I have a word? It’s about that crystal you found.” Chapter 15 Standing by an old training post, Krall began to speak. "That crystal you found in the corpse wasn't supposed to be there." "Pardon?" What? Not supposed to be there? "Yes. The others think it is the elusive Dream Crystal. Grants one wish of 'the righteous user', except things such as death. I don't believe that, though." "Wow! Imagine what..." "NO! It is going to be placed in a secure vault until I know what to do with it. It could be a dangerous weapon, Gavrin..." "Ganon, sir." "It could be a dangerous weapon, Ganon. I can't let a novice wield it just yet." Novice? Did he even see what I did to those Rahkshi? "Well, can I help with anything else?" "Yes, you can. I need you to translate the runes on the bottom of the Crystal. I'm told you have a secret passion for this kind of thing." Reading? Yes! Translating ancient runes that I've never seen? No. Who told him that? "But sir, I've never seen these runes before..." "Listen, Ginin..." "Ganon, sir." "Listen, Ganon, I see great potential in you. You're destined for great things..." He dropped the crystal into my hands. Mata Nui, it's heavy... "...Don't prove me wrong," he says turning away to walk off. "Oh, and by the way," he shouted over his shoulder to me, "You should start with the most common letters, and work your way from there." Okay. Doesn't seem too hard. Then again, it doesn't seem too easy, either. Now, what's the most common letter in the alphabet? ---- Sitting in a small, dark room, lit only by a beam of light shinng directly over the crystal, I was bored. I'd been sitting there for hours, not translating anything. All I had so far was He will strengthen himself through pain. What a load of nonsense. And I still had a load more to go. Suddenly, the door burst open, and light floods in. It was Matoh and a Toa of Iron. I think his name's Chiron. "Ganon, there's another training exercise in 10 minutes!" "What?" Mata Nui! I need to get my arse over there NOW! But what about the crystal? "Um, guys, I can't do this one. Krall set me up working out these runes." Chiron walks over and looks at the runes on the crystal. "No way..." "Chiron, what is it?" Matoh genuinly looks worried. "It foretells of a great evil... blah, blah, blah... something about water under a bridge... something dangerous, and something soon." Krall walks in through the open door and beams at us. "What are you doing? You should be over at the training grounds! Ganon, you go too! This one is important! I'll look after the crystal until you get back..." Chiron speaks up. "Sir, I can read the runes." Krall looks from me, to Chiron, and then at the crystal. "Matoh and Ganon, you go. Chiron, I need to have a word with you..." ---- We were brought out to the highest point of the mountains. I saw why it was so important for me to do the exercise — six Insurrahk were locked behind metal barred doors. And behind one of them was a Yellemoth. Oh, great. Chapter 16 I peered between the bars and stared straight into the eyes of the creature. There wasn't even a glimmer of soul. The beast lunged forward and began gnashing violently, throwing spittle over my face; if it weren't for the bars I would probably be pushing daisies right now. I re-joined the group about 5 meters away who were currently gathered around our commander. In his hand was a beautifully crafted jade Brakas monkey, its emerald green surface glistening in the mountain sun. "This is your object of hope. Your ambition in the exercise. Without this, you will fail." The group was confused, and I wasn't any different. He pointed to a small rope bridge to the right, leading to a lower peak. On the peak was a small platform with a niche within it. "This object must be brought to that platform, placed within the niche, and the inscription beneath it spoken for this exercise to be complete. Those pretty creatures within the cage over there are just here to prevent those simple tasks. Also there is one other setback too..." A grin spread across his face. He turned around and hurled the small figure with all his might into the gorge between the peaks below. "Good luck," he said as he unlocked the caged door, releasing the beasts from their prison. Characters *Ganon *Krall *Matoh *Chiron *An Insurrahk *A Shadow Panther *A Yellemoth *Several Matoran *Several Toa *Several Mechanical Rahkshi Trivia *In Ganon's Training Video, Ganon is portrayed as clumsy and misbehaved, though this is not the case. *The Shadow Panther is a creation of . *Chapters 13, 14 and 15 are written by . *It is a common misconception that this story is part of the Tehktra Nui saga. Category:Stories